Talk:Swan Princess and the Dire Tree/@comment-1140346-20160403151305
Some of you might've noticed I've been working on a page about the artwork seen in The Exiled Prince. Part of why I was working on this was to investigate what the artwork might be able to tell us about the Swan Lake Princess that James was married to - who may or may not be directly involved in the next game. What's interesting is that the black and white swans both feature predominantly in almost all of the artwork in the Swan Lake Shrine. And they're never presented as rivals or enemies - rather, they are depicted together in a friendly or almost romantic way. When the player clicks on the large painting of the Black and White Swans floating peacefully on a lake together, the Detective's mouseover text says it "must be" a picture of the two lovers reunited in eternal love - obviously, implying that the Princess is one of the swans and Prince James is the other. Bizarre and entirely unlike anything you'd expect from the Swan Lake story, but the text also makes it clear that the Detective is thinking it "must be" that - not that it is - almost as if the Detective herself isn't sure what to make of all this symbolism, but is going with the only logical assumption. She may or may not be right about it. Also interesting is the fact that only ONE artwork shows us a single swan. It is this painting of the white swan. This could be proof that the woman James married was, indeed, the white swan... but the picture comes with a matching picture, on the other side of the door to the Moonlit Lake: seen here. This painting is obviously of a ballerina wearing the tutu we see on display elsewhere in the room - making it definitely a portrait of James' bride. So the question here is, are these two matching portraits both portraying the same woman? Or are they depicting the black and white swan, one of them in a different guise, as every other artwork in the Swan Lake Shrine is? If that were the case, it would prove that James married the Black Swan and not the White one. But most important is the lack of animosity in the swan depictions. This indicates either a big departure from the story of Swan Lake (as the White Swan would certainly not be so fond of the Black Swan after she impersonated her and tried to steal her man) or that James did, indeed, marry the wrong swan (after all, why would the Black Swan need to feel bitter over her rival? She would've bested her entirely and one could argue she would be fond of any reminders of the White Swan, cursed forever on that lake.). Also of interest (though unrelated to DP11, most likely) is that TWO artworks depict Prince James dancing a ballet along with his Swan Princess. So I guess we can add that to James' abilities ;)